Subject: Support the Weld nomination--contact the Senate
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:52:49 -0400 (EDT)

ACTION ALERT
Support the Weld nomination!!!
ACT UP Washington applauds Weld's courage

Group calls for speedy Senate confirmation
Support for sounds AIDS 
policy threatens confirmation

Statement on Mass. Gov. William Weld's vow to
fight for confirmation as US Ambassador to Mexico

contact ACT UP Washington at 202.547.9404

States ACT UP Washington's Steve Michael, "We commend Governor Weld for his
act of courage.  Standing up to Senator Jesse Helms is tough in today's
Washington.  We know that Helms will be using the Governor's support of
progressive HIV prevention and treatment as an excuse for a campaign of hate.

Weld has supported making marijuana available for sick people with AIDS and
other illnesses and has advocated needle exchange programs which help halt
the spread of HIV.  Gov. Weld presents a rare, outstanding example of
leadership on AIDS, basing public health policies on sound science.  

Senator Helms has long record advocating the death of people with AIDS.  ACT
UP Washington calls upon Senate leader Trent Lott to throw his full support
behind Weld's confirmation.  

ACT UP Washington is hopeful that President Clinton's nomination and support
of Gov. Weld represents a positive shift in Administration AIDS policies,"
concludes Michael.

Contact your Senator
Support the Weld Confirmation!!!

ACT UP Washington is calling on all activists to contact  their Senator's and
ask them to vote to confirm the nomination of WIlliam Weld as United States
Ambassador to Mexico. 

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott can be reached at 202-224-3135.  Demand
that he put pressure on Senator Helms to hold hearings on the confirmation of
Governor Weld.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle can be reached at 202-224-5556.  

Call on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support the nomination of
William Weld at 202-224-4651.

members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee include

Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina)  Chair
Richard Lugar (R-Indiana)
Paul Coverdale (R-Georgia)
Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)
Craig Thomas (R-Wyoming)
John Ashcroft (R-Missouri)
Rod Grams (R-Minnesota)
Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)

of the Republicans Lugar came out in support of needle exchange programs
while seeking the votes of residents of New Hampshire during that state's
1996 presidential primary.

Frist of Tennessee is a heart surgeon and should be open to the medical
arguements of both medical marijuana and needle exchanges.

Lugar can be reached at 202-224-4814.  His fax number is 202-228-0360.
 Lugar's e-mail address is [email-masked].  

Frist can be reached at 202-224-224-3344, His fax number is 202-228-1264.
 Frist's e-mail is [email-masked].

For those of you interested---Senator Helms can be reached at 202-224-6342.
 His fax number is 202-228-1339.  Helms e-mail address is
[email-masked].

Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee include---
Joseph Biden of Delaware
Paul Sarbanes of Maryland
Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
John F. Kerry of Massachusetts
Charles S. Robb of Virginia
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin
Dianne Feinstein of California
and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota

The White House Switchboard can be reached at 202-456-1414.

Contact your home state Senator through the Senate Swithcboard at
202-224-3121

ACT UP also urges everyone to call or e-mail President Clinton and urge him
to continue to put sounds AIDS policy ahead of politics and stand behind his
nomination of William Weld as United States Ambassador to Mexico.

for more information contact
ACT UP Washington at 202.547.9404

more details to follow--including
complete e-mail and phone list

===============

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:34:28 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Phone-Fax-EMAIL-Fight Helms-Support Weld

ACTION ALERT
ACT NOW!
Support the Weld Nomination
e-mail addresss of Senators provided---
for more information contact ACT UP at 202.547.9404

Recently President Clinton nominated Republican Massachusetts Governor Bill
Weld to be our next Ambassador to Mexico.

The Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse
Helms is refusing to conduct committee hearings on that nomination.  Helms is
attacking Weld for his support of  both medical marijuana and needle exchange
in his role as governor of Massachusetts. 

Weld is fighting back!  He has resigned as Massachusetts Governor to devote
all his time, effort and energy to win confirmation as the United States
Ambassador to Mexico.  We must stand with Weld! Stand up to the number one
bigot in the United States Senate. 

Needle Exchanges Save Lives!!! 
Medical Marijuana Saves Lives!!!

This is our opportunity to challenge Helms on his home territory.  Medical
Marijuana and Needle Exchange are two very important tools in the arsenal in
the War on AIDS.  

Please take the following recent ACT UP Washington position papers on Medical
Marijuana and Needle Exchange and adapt them to a letter to your United
States Senators.

Call on members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to push for
committee hearings and ultimatly a vote for the confirmation of William Weld
as United States Ambassador to Mexico.

Political leaders, like Weld who stand up for sound science and public health
need to know that we will stand with them when they need us. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preserving the Doctor-Patient Relationship
MEDICAL MARIJUANA SAVES LIVES
Medical decisions are best determined within the doctor-patient relationship,
not politicians or prosecutors.  

 Under current law, the seriously ill who turn to marijuana for its possible
therapeutic effects are subject to arrest, criminal prosecution, and
incarceration.  By patients, law enforcement and prosecutors are assured of
an easy conviction.  
 
 Caregivers have no other option but to bravely enter open air drug markets
to purchase the marijuana that might provide some comfort to loved ones in
their final days.  Physicans who even discuss the possible benefits of
marijuana in the medical treatment of their patients may be targeted by
prosecuters.

 For those sick and dying patients who use marijuana to ease their suffering,
marijuana is hardly a recreational drug, or a gateway to heroin addiction.

 Some AIDS patients have found relief with marijuana to ease severe nausea
and vomiting, and to help counter the loss of appetite and weight loss of
deadly AIDS wasting syndrome.  Expensive new triple-combination therapies
hold little promise for those AIDS sufferers who are unable to hold their
pills down.  

 Cancer patients enduring the side effects of radiation and chemo-therapy
sometimes find relief in marijuana.  Glaucoma, one of the leading causes of
blindness among Americans, has long been treated with marijuana to alleviate
the intense fluid pressure within the eye

The Point is Saving Lives---
Two men were recently convicted for possessing drug paraphernalia in a
Nashua, New Hampshire.  Dan Sundquist and Jon Parker were operating an
illegal needle exchange program in the state that gave Pat Buchanan his only
primary victory, getting sterile needles and syringes out to injection drug
users to help stop the spread of HIV.  

 Support for these programs was highlighted by Senator Richard Lugar's (R,
Indiana) endorsement of clean needle availability to injection drug users
during a town hall meeting during the New Hampshire primary.  The
decriminalization of the sale and possession of drug injection equipment
passed twice out of New Hampshire's Republican-majority state legislature.  

 They were convinced by overwhelming evidence that needle sharing among
injection drug users is the surest way to transmit HIV, and making clean
needles available is the surest way to reduce needle sharing, and reduce HIV
infection rates.  The bills were vetoed, most recently by Governor (and Dole
Campaign Chair) Steve Merrill.  

 Needle exchange programs have been operating in the United States for more
than ten years, often illegally and amid fierce controversy.  AIDS activists
recognized early on that tens of thousands of new HIV infections could be
prevented by exchanging clean syringes, costing 7.5 cents a piece, for dirty
ones.  Groups like ACT UP started needle exchange programs, pressured changes
in local laws, and continue to advocate for this highly effective yet
neglected HIV prevention strategy.  

 Activists like Sundquist and Parker put themselves at risk to save the lives
of a population long marginalized by society.  However, jurisdictions with
legal needle exchange programs are hard pressed to find resources because
federal funds cannot be used under a 1993 ban.  As a result, even AIDS
service organizations with multi-million dollar budgets like DC's
Whitman-Walker Clinic refuse to start their own needle exchange programs
least they jeopardize federal funding for other services like HIV testing and
counseling.

 The continued federal ban on needle exchange funding remains an Achilles
heel for the Clinton Administration, whose overall response to the AIDS
epidemic has been lack-luster.  The first comprehensive study commissioned by
the Centers for Disease Control published in October, 1993 called for lifting
the federal ban.  It has been followed by countless others, including the
National Research Council, the US Conference of Mayors, and the American
Foundation for AIDS Research.  They all come to the same conclusion:  needle
exchange works.

 In fact, President Clinton, while campaigning for votes in California in
1992, promised in a full-page ad in Frontiers magazine to "allow federal
money to be used for condom distribution and needle exchange where local
communities approve."  Yet four years later the ban remains, while over 50%
of new HIV infections can be traced to injection drug use.  Could needle
exchange be too politically volatile for a President seeking reelection?

 When activists grilled White House AIDS coordinator Patsy Fleming at a
recent town meeting in New York, she rejected suggestions that the President
could lift the federal needle exchange ban with the stroke of a pen.  "It's
up to the Republicans in Congress.  That's why we have to campaign for
Democrats." she said.  

 The activists persisted, pulling out the Congressional statute from the 1993
Appropriations Bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education,
which states that in order for the ban to be lifted, "The Surgeon General
(sic) of the United States determine that such programs are effective in
preventing the spread of HIV and do not encourage the use of illegal drugs."
 Fleming retreated and said it up to Health and Human Services Secretary
Donna Shalala.

 In consultation with all four HHS agencies, the Centers of Disease Control
and Prevention, urged in December 1993 that, "the ban on Federal funding for
needle exchange be lifted."  Despite the overwhelming consensus within her
own Department, Shalala hasn't budged, earning her the nick-name 'Donna
Do-Nothing.'. 

 Yet while defending the most recent 'dancing condom' public service
announcements for AIDS prevention, Shalala stated on NBC's Dateline last
winter, "we can't wait for a scientific breakthrough, or we're going to lose
another generation of Americans.  It's not worth it.  I'd rather take all the
criticism and save lives."

 After six federally funded reviews supporting needle exchange effectiveness,
Shalala's comments ring false.  To deflect mounting criticism, the HHS
Secretary told the New York Times in December 1995 that there is still
"controversy over research" regarding needle exchange.  

 Indeed, the President's own Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS blasted the
Administration for its intransigence on the federal needle exchange ban in
its "Progress Report" issued June 7, 1996, "The Council continues to have
grave concerns that Federal policy regarding needle-exchange programs is not
consistent with current knowledge and understanding regarding the impact of
such programs on HIV prevention efforts."  Yet this urgent plea may be
destined to join the mountain of unimplemented recommendations and reports on
AIDS that continue to gather dust at the White House.

Call on the Senate Leadership
Pressure Helms!!!
Demand Hearings for Weld Confirmation
Call on the Republican Leadership to pressure Senator Helms to allow hearing
to go forward on the Weld nomination.  Helms is atempting to kill the debate
and refuses to allow the entire Senate to vote for or against Weld.  Helms
has made medical marijuana and needle exchange issues--he has bitten off more
than he can chew.   

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi
[email-masked]
202-224-3135
fax 202-224-2262

Minority Leader Tom Daschle
[email-masked]
202-224-2321
fax 202-224-2047

Senator Don Nickles (R/Oklahoma, Asst. Majority Leader)
[email-masked]
202-224-2708
fax 202-224-6008

Senator Connie Mack of Florida (Rep. Floor Leader)
[email-masked]
202-224-2764
fax 202-224-8022

Jesse Helms Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee
Republican of North Carolina
[email-masked]  
202-224-6342
fax 202-228-1339

Richard Lugar (R-Indiana)
[email-masked]
202-224-4814
fax 202-228-0360

Paul Coverdell (R-Georgia)
[email-masked]
202-224-3643
fax 202-228-3783

Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
[email-masked]
202-224-4224
fax 202-224-5213

Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)
(no e-mail address available)
202-224-3753
fax 202-228-3997

Craig Thomas (R-Wyoming)
[email-masked]
202-224-6441
fax 202-224-1724

John Ashcroft (R-Missouri)
[email-masked]
202-224-6154
fax 202-228-0998

Rod Grams (R-Minnesota)
[email-masked]
202-224-3244
fax 202-228-0956

Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
[email-masked]
202-224-3344
fax 202-228-3679

Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)
[email-masked]
202-224-6521
fax 202-228-1265

of the Republicans Lugar came out in support of needle exchange programs
while seeking the votes of residents of New Hampshire during that state's
1996 presidential primary.

Frist of Tennessee is a heart surgeon and should be open to the medical
arguements of both medical marijuana and needle exchanges.

Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee
Senator Joe Biden (Ranking Democrat) Delaware
[email-masked]
202-224-5042
fax 202-224-0139

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California
[email-masked]
202-224-3841
fax 202-228-3954

Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland
[email-masked]
202-224-4524
fax 202-224-1651

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut
[email-masked]
202-224-2823
fax 202-224-1083

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts
john [email-masked]
202-224-2742
fax 202-224-8525

Senator Chuck Robb of Virginia
[email-masked]
202-224-4024
fax 202-224-8689

Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin
[email-masked]
202-224-5323
fax 202-224-2725

Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota
[email-masked]
202-224-5641
fax 202-224-8438

to write a member of the Senate
The Honorable (First name, Last Name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510

to send a letter to the President send to
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC  20500

please send a copy of your letter
to ACT UP Washington
409 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002

also send copies to your local newspaper and adapt a copy for a letter to the
editor

It's time be beat Jesse Helms in his backyard--
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

the committee address is
Room SD-450
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510
Dirkson Office Building

for more information contact ACT UP Washington at 202-547-9404

ACT UP Washington's statement in support of the Weld Nomination---

States ACT UP Washington's Steve Michael, "We commend Governor Weld for his
act of courage.  Standing up to Senator Jesse Helms is tough in today's
Washington.  We know that Helms will be using the Governor's support of
progressive HIV prevention and treatment as an excuse for a campaign of hate.

Weld has supported making marijuana available for sick people with AIDS and
other illnesses and has advocated needle exchange programs which help halt
the spread of HIV.  Gov. Weld presents a rare, outstanding example of
leadership on AIDS, basing public health policies on sound science.  

Senator Helms has long record advocating the death of people with AIDS.  ACT
UP Washington calls upon Senate leader Trent Lott to throw his full support
behind Weld's confirmation.  

ACT UP Washington is hopeful that President Clinton's nomination and support
of Gov. Weld represents a positive shift in Administration AIDS policies,"
concludes Michael.